According to a report by Taiwan's United Daily News on October 7, the budget for the Taiwan Navy's "new rescue ship follow-on vessels" has skyrocketed, drawing questioning from Kuomintang legislator Ma Wen-chun.

Ma Wen-chun stated that the Taiwan Navy plans to allocate approximately NT$21.162 billion (New Taiwan dollars, same below; 1 NT dollar is about 0.21 yuan) from 2027 to 2034 to build two "rescue ship follow-on vessels," with a per-unit budget of about NT$10.581 billion, compared with NT$3.658 billion for the first vessel, a surge of about NT$6.9 billion.

Ma Wen-chun demanded that the Taiwan defense authorities explain what exactly the extra budget is buying.

The report said that on October 6, Ma Wen-chun questioned Taiwan Executive Yuan head Cho Jung-tai and Taiwan defense authorities head Ku Li-hsiung, raising the issue of inflated budgeting for the Taiwan Navy's "new rescue ship follow-on vessels."

Ma Wen-chun questioned that the first vessel of the Taiwan Navy's new rescue ship, the "Ta Wu," had a total planned budget of NT$3.658 billion, while the total budget for the two follow-on vessels surged by about NT$14 billion combined. What exactly are the added capabilities?

She demanded that the Taiwan defense authorities explain item by item the added capabilities and increased expenditures, and said they cannot nearly triple the budget while failing to clearly explain the specific use of the difference.

Ma Wen-chun noted that one important reason for raising budgets in the past was that no one bid. She questioned that if no one bids, the Democratic Progressive Party authorities should review cost estimates and tender conditions. Could it be that as long as funding keeps being added until a manufacturer is willing to take on the project, the budget is then considered reasonable?

Regarding the sharp increase in the budget for the Taiwan Navy's "new rescue ship follow-on vessels," a large number of netizens on the island criticized and questioned it in the comments section of related news, saying, "This is too exaggerated," "An eye-opener," "The way they're acting is ugly," "Is NT$10.5 billion for a new ship or a second-hand one?" "Buying some scrap metal," and "Buying a pocket full of money."